Good food deserves to be shared and Jessica Crossan is keen to share that food in her community.
Crossan, a local Epicure independent consultant, is one of many Bradford West Gwillimbury residents carving out a living by operating a business out of her home.
From in-home cooking demonstrations and live-streamed videos, to appearances at a variety of artisan markets throughout Simcoe County and the Greater Toronto Area, Crossan is living her brand and its Good Food Mission that wants to see every table feature food made with clean ingredients.
Crossan grew up in Gilford, attending Bradford District High School before heading off to university.
Soon after graduation, she and her husband, Paul, returned to the area, eventually settling in Bradford. Their family began to grow in 2011, with three children arriving in three consecutive years.
The cost of putting three children in daycare kept Crossan from returning to full-time work once their third child was born, but the need for a second income became immediate when Paul lost his job. The couple knew they’d both need to be bringing in a paycheque in order to support their growing family.
“We needed to fill the gap between what he had been making and what we needed,” Crossan said. “The whole myth of going back to work to make money is exactly that. When you’re paying for three kids in full-time daycare, they would have had to double my salary to make it worth going back.”
Even before her husband found a new job, Crossan quickly realized evening or weekend work would take too much away from her relationship with her now four children and her husband. So she and Paul started researching opportunities from home that would provide the financial support the household needed and be a fulfilling career change.
It was a girlfriend who told Crossan about Epicure. She had been buying the products online as there were no independent consultants in the area at that time.
“Paul and I read labels; we are more concerned than the average person about the ingredients in the food we were cooking, especially for the kids,” Crossan said. “(With Epicure) you can read the product labels and every word is a ‘food word.’”
Epicure was founded in 1997. Its founder wanted to be in charge of the food she fed her family and share those clean-eating solutions with a wider audience.
That includes adhering to a “never-ever list” of ingredients that will not be found in Epicure products, such as artificial colours or sweeteners, bleached flour or gluten.
Even though it’s a direct sales model, Crossan will tell you it’s less about selling spices and more about selling a service. She is in control of her own success on her own terms, with a product she has no problem championing to people in her hometown.
“I am my best customer,” she said with a laugh. “Part of what keeps me in business is that I love the product as much as any of my customers do.”
For more information, visit Crossan’s Epicure Facebook page.
Midweek Mugging is a regular series profiling local businesses or interesting people in Bradford West Gwillimbury. Want to be featured? Email [email protected].
